A COMPUTER expert who worked in the Cabinet Office was jailed for nearly three years yesterday after hundreds of child abuse images were found on his home computer.

Hans Sebastian Crump, a digital communications manager who advised the Government on its website, downloaded the images and shared encrypted files with other paedophiles on chat rooms for three years.

Crump, 39, amassed a collection of 359 indecent images and 16 videos of “girls aged three to five years old being subjected to really horrific sexual abuse”, Peter Zinner, prosecuting, told Southwark Crown Court in south London.

Seventy-four of the images were rated in the most depraved category A.

The effect on these children is incalculable and a sentence must be given that will deter others from viewing these images or making and distributing them

Judge Nicholas Lorraine-Smith

None were downloaded or viewed on Government computers.

Crump admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and one of distributing the images. Jailing him for two years and eight months, Judge Nicholas Lorraine-Smith said: “The effect on these children is incalculable and a sentence must be given that will deter others from viewing these images or making and distributing them.”

Crump was arrested on January 30 during a raid at his home in Wandsworth, south London, after a nine-month investigation.

Internet service providers had alerted police to an individual streaming indecent videos of children. Digital tracking identified Crump as the culprit.